1974 — Journalists at the Donga Ilbo, a major South Korean newspaper, launch a free press campaign, denouncing government censorship and surveillance of the press under the authoritarian Park Chung-hee administration. The campaign resulted in the firing of nearly 180 of the paper’s reporters and photographers.

1994 — Cho Chang-ho, a South Korean taken prisoner during the Korean War, returns home via China after 43 years of captivity in North Korea. He was the first Korean War prisoner to escape from the communist North.

2002 — South Korea and Chile sign a free trade agreement.

2003 — The South Korean Defense Ministry announces that 1,186 soldiers from the South Korean Army were held prisoner in North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.

2005 — North Korea says it will participate in the six-party talks on ending the dispute over its nuclear weapons program in November as scheduled. It adds that its commitment to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula remains unchanged.

2008 — South Korea, China, Japan and the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agree to create an US$80 billion joint fund to fight a regional financial crisis.

2013 — North Korea informs Seoul that it will return six South Koreans who have been detained for illegally entering the country. The North sent back the six and the body belonging to a dead wife of one of the six men in a humanitarian gesture the next day.

2017 — The initial flame is lit in Greece for the torch relay for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, 108 days ahead of the start of the international sports event in South Korea.

Source: Yonhap News Agency